


and they lived

by eva_cybele



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 04:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3964702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eva_cybele/pseuds/eva_cybele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>not happily ever after, but things don't always work out like they do in stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and they lived

It was just like a fairy tale, wasn’t it? The princess who regained her throne, who liberated her people, and avenged her family; and the common mercenary who carved a bloody furrow through four nations to give her that chance.

That she loved him was a given. He was bold and straightforward and honest, her strength when she’d be unaware of her own. She made him a lord, made him her general, and if this was a story for children then the country would have rejoiced at the chance to have a hero-king as consort to their beloved queen.

But this wasn’t a story, not truly, and while the people loved them both, the nobility sneered and plotted behind their smiles. And as for her hero, well. Perception was never his strong suit. Maybe he knew that she loved him. Maybe he didn’t. Like as not it wouldn’t have changed anything, even if he did.

He was a child of a Begnion mother and Daein father, born in Gallia and raised in Crimea, with a heron galdr for a lullaby. He belonged to all of Tellius, and it would be wrong of her to keep him confined within the borders of one small country. He loved Crimea, but he did not belong to it.

It was no surprise when he left, not the first time, nor the second. She only ever knew him in war; in peace he grew impatient and restless, and she was dedicated to peace above all else. They were fundamentally incompatible, like two halves of the same whole. And they’d seen exactly how well that worked out with Ashera and Yune, hadn’t they?

There had been a moment, fleeting, when her uncle Renning had been restored to his senses -- here was the man who should have been king. Here was a man whom the nobility adored and the military worshipped, who could lead Crimea with strength and courage that no one believed that she possessed. All she had to do was abdicate the throne, and then she could return to the shadows, just a girl on a pegasus. Maybe she could be a mercenary? She was good with a sword, much better than during the last war, and Ike’s people were always short on aerial support.

But from the moment the crown touched her brow, she _was_ Crimea, and she could not cast that away. Not even for him.

Lucia’s informants indicated that he had gone east with his dragon-branded tactician, that he had given the Greil mercenaries to Mist and Titania, and Elincia did not wait for him.

She married Geoffrey, who loved her, and if this were a fairy tale, she would love in return. After all, he was her knight in shining armor, her childhood love, the man that fate had chosen for her.

They had a daughter, whose hair was a paler shade of blue than it should have been, who grew up with stories of the Hero of Dawn, and never realized why her mother would go quiet at the mention of his name.

She did not wait for him.

He did not return.

And the stories went on without them.


End file.
